Oh my: Obama never pressured me about the public option, says Lieberman

posted at 7:45 pm on December 21, 2009 by Allahpundit

Devastating, not because it reflects some flaw in The One’s strategy — there was no way Joementum would have played ball on a public plan so why waste time begging him? — but because it feeds the developing narrative on the left that Obama himself is chiefly responsible for shattering their dream. No less a progressive icon than Russ Feingold pointed the finger yesterday, an accusation quickly trumpeted by the left’s favorite news site. Now here comes their archenemy to say, yeah, Feingold’s pretty much right:

“Well, no. I think I got pressure from the president to be for health care reform,” Lieberman said when asked by HuffPost about any pressure from the administration to support either the public option or the Medicare buy-in. “I’d have to think about this, but I didn’t really have direct input from the White House on this.”

He added that Nancy-Ann DeParle, a top administration health care aide, downplayed the public option’s significance early in the debate.

“Early on, Nancy-Ann DeParle came in, I told her my argument, I said, ‘Nancy, I don’t remember this ever being in the presidential campaign debates — or discussions. I don’t mean just the debates. And she said, ‘You know, it’s interesting. We went back and checked and there’s one mention in the bottom of a paragraph of an Obama presidential policy statement on health care where it’s mentioned as an option.’ But most of the negotiation I had on that was with Senator Reid.”…

“Most of my dealings were with Senator Reid until the very end, that Sunday, when I went in to his office and Rahm Emanuel was there,” said Lieberman. Rahm, said Lieberman, “was relatively quiet.”

As I write this, there are “Fire Rahm” petitions circulating on the left; just this morning, Joe Scarborough predicted he’d be gone by the end of next year. He’s a useful scapegoat but it’s The One who’s forever been accused of “voting present” at tough moments (witness his passivity about the stimulus earlier this year), so why the stretch to blame Emanuel? Obama’s strategy going into this was to avoid Clinton’s mistake by letting Congress take the lead in hopes that whatever developed organically would have a better chance of passing than a bill that was forcefed by the White House. And … he was right: Something is going to pass, a “starter home,” in Harkin’s words, which they can build upon in the decades to come until they’ve got the socialized-medicine mansion of their dreams. The left wants its mansion now, but Obama no longer has the strength to build it. He’s been losing political muscle for months as the public soured on the bill, even back when the public option was on the table, to the point where he’s now too weak to pressure anyone, really. Which is another way of saying that the left still can’t accept that the bill is unpopular. So instead they’ll blame The One for blowing it and some of them will stay home in protest next November. Works for me.

Update: Since we’re busy stoking lefty antagonism towards Obama, let’s pile on with this clip from Ed Schultz’s show accusing the White House of trying to keep ObamaCare-hating liberals off the air at MSNBC. Any reason to believe that Schultz is right about the administration e-mailing Scarborough during his show to complain? Why, yes — they’ve done it before. So here’s the state of play at the DNC’s home channel: A hard lefty is ripping a Democratic president for leaning on a Republican host, while inviting other hard lefties onto his own show to rip one of his Democratic colleagues at the network. Awesome. Click the image to listen.

I don’t see how the bill is going to be reconciled in conference committee between the House and Senate. Both sides want it to be something the other side does not, and both sides have pledged to vote against it if it has / doesn’t have particular factors.

I say it gets stuck in conference committee and doesn’t come out–if at all–until well after the State of the Union.

For the 18th time in the last 3 days… trust NO ONE with a (D) next to his or her name.

They registered, ran and caucused as Democrats for a reason… they believe in Socialism.

Nelson, Lieberman, Stupak, Landreau, Bayh, Dean, some far lefty wanting the whole pie today… no matter what they say, do or threaten… they can ALL be bought and they all want the same thing (either today or tomorrow)… they must ALL be defeated.

So we’ll take the public option out, and put in insurance exchanges where consumers can pick one of four insurance plans defined by the government, but managed by the insurance companies. Meanwhile regulations will require insurance companies to pay out 80-85 percent of the premiums collected, and live (or die) on the remainder. Oh, the government will set the price insurance companies can charge, and also set what the companies will cover.

Yes, I see now, that is completely different than the government running health insurance.

This is all their game for their profit. Anybody that thinks these political whores give a rat’s backside about them is living in some parallel universe. The people in this country are being played like a violin and toyed with like rats in a Skinner box. it would be great if the masses would realize this fact and refuse to be manipulated but i don’t see it happening soon.

Someone help me here – I thought Joe L. was going to vote NO but voted YES.

What happened? :(

RedNewEnglander on December 21, 2009 at 7:54 PM

I think he was only going to vote No if the public option was in it. Reid dropped it, so Lieberman got on board.

This brings up two interesting points: 1) Lieberman saying he didn’t get any pressure from O about the public option (which is AP’s point) and 2) the Left (esp. DailyKos) is skewering Lieberman for ridding the bill of the p.o., effectively making it a bill for the insurance companies — coupled together, it’s obvious that the far Left DKos and HuffPo types should actually be mad at Obama, not Lieberman.

This is all their game for their profit. Anybody that thinks these political whores give a rat’s backside about them is living in some parallel universe. The people in this country are being played like a violin and toyed with like rats in a Skinner box. it would be great if the masses would realize this fact and refuse to be manipulated but i don’t see it happening soon.

I don’t see how the bill is going to be reconciled in conference committee between the House and Senate. Both sides want it to be something the other side does not, and both sides have pledged to vote against it if it has / doesn’t have particular factors.

I say it gets stuck in conference committee and doesn’t come out–if at all–until well after the State of the Union.

Enoxo on December 21, 2009 at 8:02 PM

Coulter and Barbara Bachman say pretty much the same thing. I think they were on Hannity’s radio show. Sean was on vacation and the fill in interviewed Coulter and Bachman back to back.

I say it gets stuck in conference committee and doesn’t come out–if at all–until well after the State of the Union.

Enoxo on December 21, 2009 at 8:02 PM

So? The death of the country is put off another month. Yipeeee!!

The Dems don’t care about 2010. They will lose a lot of seats no matter what happens with ObamaCare. The president’s party always loses seats. Vote NO and they lose 30 seats. Vote YES and they lose 40 seats. This is the holy grail of liberalism. Do you think they will give up their chance to turn the US socialist for a measly few seats in the next election?

Rahm will have to quit some time in September to help those who will lose in the house or even before as damage control to stop them from the inevitable loss, and/or then run for the congress so he can be the new minority leader.

These sentiments are mirrored in recent polls suggesting that while overall support for Obama among black voters continues to be overwhelming, hovering in the 90 percent range, the intensity of that support appears to be diminishing—a trend that could end up affecting black turnout in next year’s congressional midterm elections and possibly even the presidential election of 2012.

A breakout of black voters in Washington Post surveys over the past eight months shows that those who “strongly” approve of Obama fell from 85 to 69 percent, while his disapproval rating quintupled—from 2 to 11 percent. Admittedly, that’s still very low number, but it’s evidently moving in the wrong direction.

Idiots. If Obama fires Rahm, he will probably go with someone more moderate since the reason he’s tanking in the polls is because of his lefty agenda. And if Obama goes with a hard left guy to replace Rahm he’ll just keep sinking in the polls.

I agree. Lil things will be slipped in, here, and there….and I don’t think anyone will be allowed to read any of it, before they vote. Which in, and of itself, is deceitful, but now becoming the norm, with this corrupt bunch of democraps.

Don’t give me that “they killed the public option” bunk either. Anyone think it’ll pop up again in conference? Or at least some iteration of it? No?

Then you’re continuing to delude yourself.

catmman on December 21, 2009 at 8:51 PM

They will staple the House version to the Senate version and call it a bill and pass it. Any private company that actually tried to comply with the law would spend all of its money on lawyers. The only companies that will be able to comply are the ones that are not prosecuted and sued out of existence. Government run plans will get sovereign immunity and so won’t need that overhead.

As I write this, there are “Fire Rahm” petitions circulating on the left

WOW, I am SHOCKED. No really I am. I never thought the left would want twinkle toes out of there!

upinak on December 21, 2009 at 7:52 PM

I have forgotten how this goes now. Will Rahm get a kiss on each cheek from a capo, and then there will be a slight nod of the head as a shadowy figure follows him out the door. Or do we wait to hear of a horse’s head in his bed?

The public option will be back in conference. It won’t be called that of course. And it will be spelled out over 50 pages with legalese so thick you need 2 law degrees to understand. But it will be there and come 2013 when Dr. Smith’s office is closed and replaced with The Office Of Health Care and Management Office #52-1G-A people will finally understand what’s happening.

Not to mention Obama’s numbers among black voters is starting to erode as well.
SouthernGent on December 21, 2009 at 7:50 PM

Dallas Tea Party rallied at KayBay’s offices today (Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston that I know of). There were MANY more non-whites in attendance, protesting. And MANY more non-whites driving by, honking, and giving the “thumbs up”. Yes, there were also giving the one-fingered salute, some drove by a couple of times chanting the name of their dear leader. Lots of reason to be positive though. The others? They get what they deserve.

The Nebraska Right to Life endorsed Ben Nelson over Republican Pete Ricketts in the last race. Before Nelson played traitor they were saying that Nelson’s stand against government-funded abortion vindicated their endorsement of him.

I think it’s fair to say that Nelson has taught us that you can never just vote for an individual. Regardless of how good or bad the individual is, when you vote for a politician you are voting for their party. Your vote puts their leadership in control of procedures and possibilities. And there is no such thing as a pro-life democrat politician. When push comes to shove they will always stand with their party rather than honor.

I think that’s what we need to let everybody know. A lot of Nebraskans voted for Ben Nelson because even though he ran as a democrat he seemed like a good, decent guy. If he was a good, decent guy he wouldn’t have had anything to do with the democrats. If he was a good and decent guy he should have recognized the scum for what they are.

First off, can I just say that Mika looks smokin hot in that white tank top. Long been my lib crush.

This has got to be Axelrod’s feeblest performance since Wolf Blitzer (Wolf Blitzer!) pressed him on the idea of allowing people to buy insurance across state lines. He had nothin. You could hear Peggy Noonan’s exasperation when he went on about deficit reduction.

Any reason to believe that Schultz is right about the administration e-mailing Scarborough during his show to complain? Why, yes — they’ve done it before.

Hey, on 4 December 2009, I sent HA’s tips e-mail address the following e-mail.

I was just watching Morning Joe.

At about 7:30, after Scarborough had criticized the WH earlier in the show for having no one with private-sector experience, Jarrett evidently e-mailed Mika to remind the Morning Joe that Jarrett had been a CEO in Chicago.

If it’s a slow news day, you might see if you can resurrect the clip and then offer a summary of her private-sector experience. I’m under the impression that she’s an absolutely disgraceful slumlord.

I’d love for Ed or Allah to find this clip from that show. It was unbelievable.

So here’s the state of play at the DNC’s home channel: A hard lefty is ripping a Democratic president for leaning on a Republican host, while inviting other hard lefties onto his own show to rip one of his Democratic colleagues at the network. Awesome. Click the image to listen.